During spring the common Eider migrates through the Baltic sea on the way to their breeding ground in the Swedish and Finnish archipelago. Hundreds of thousands Eiders passes the south coast of Scania every year but the last twenty years there have been a huge decline in the Eider population, which then affects the numbers of birds on migration. The reason for this decline is mostly due to the declining number of blue mussels on the ocean floor. The blue mussels are the number one nourishment for the Eider and many other species of ducks with declining populations.
However, there may be less Eider than it used to be, but there are still a lot of individuals. At least for a couple of years to go.... I visited the south coast a week ago, and during one morning around 20 000 eiders passed. Photographing migrating Eiders is pretty straight-forward, that is if you want portraits. To create something original is harder since so many people are doing the same thing. I had this in mind that morning.
We slept in the car, right at the beach, so I went down to photograph some landscape an hour before sunrise. The moon was up so I manage to capture some sea movement in moonlight as well as the pink sky. Then suddenly a flock of Eiders passed in the darkness. I realized that I had a chance to capture the migrating eiders in the reflected moonlight, which is pretty unique (at least I haven't seen it before).
Later that morning I also tried to capture the Eiders that passed right over head in a graphical shot with the wide angel lens.
However, there may be less Eider than it used to be, but there are still a lot of individuals. At least for a couple of years to go.... I visited the south coast a week ago, and during one morning around 20 000 eiders passed. Photographing migrating Eiders is pretty straight-forward, that is if you want portraits. To create something original is harder since so many people are doing the same thing. I had this in mind that morning.
We slept in the car, right at the beach, so I went down to photograph some landscape an hour before sunrise. The moon was up so I manage to capture some sea movement in moonlight as well as the pink sky. Then suddenly a flock of Eiders passed in the darkness. I realized that I had a chance to capture the migrating eiders in the reflected moonlight, which is pretty unique (at least I haven't seen it before).
Later that morning I also tried to capture the Eiders that passed right over head in a graphical shot with the wide angel lens.
